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Ryan Bridge: Wellington will come back from this · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A timely reminder, an important one too for me. Last night,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I'm in Wellington, as I mentioned earlier, flew into the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: shammozzle storm yesterday for an event last night. It's easily
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: one of the most beautiful cities in New Zealand, is
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: it not? Can we all agree on that? With the
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: hills jutting out of the harbor, all of the bushs
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: surrounding it, it is stunning. And the weather was good,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: so that helped. It was absolutely beautiful flying in and
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: then you land and there's the road cones and there's
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: the uber driver not happy, and the mayors and meltdown,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and the government's taking over and the council is all
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: over the place, shambles, shamozl all that stuff. But then
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: this event last night featured and honored a couple of
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Wellington business people, among them Brian McGuinness, whose family have
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: either built or refurbished basically half of Wellington, including Government
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: House by the way, which I found fascinating. Been in
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: business for decades, you know, more than fifty years. Doug
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Hodak was a name you will know. He was honored
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: there as well, great Wellingtonian. Many were honored there. Speeches
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: particularly got me last night, got me right in the guts. Actually,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: these are guys who have seen it all, Wellington at
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: its best, Wellington at its absolute worst, but when it's
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: the crown on the jewel, when it's the butt of
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: our jokes. And their message essentially was politics is temporary.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Like any city, the real pulse, the real engine room
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: is private enterprise, always has been, always will be. And
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: there was a tech guru, John Daniel Trask, who spoke
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: last night. He said we shouldn't always look to the council,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: to the government to fix our problems or to make
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: things better, because for the most part we can actually
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: do it on our own. We can solve problems on
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: our own. Sure, there are some issues that only government
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: can and council can look after that only government and
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: council have a purview over. But for most things we
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: can actually do it ourselves. And so that is true
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: of Wellington. Wellington is no exception. Wellington will come back,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: and probably doesn't help that people like me sit in
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: front of microphones in Auckland and bleat about the place.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: But you know, it's fun from a distance, quite different
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: up close. For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: listen live to news talks. It'd be from five am weekdays,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio